Invoking the Ancient Authority and the Wisdom of Vitruvius: Charles Robert Cockerell’S Classical Principles of Architecture

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Invoking the Ancient Authority and the Wisdom of Vitruvius: Charles Robert Cockerell’S Classical Principles of Architecture

Diploma Lecture Series 2013 Revolution to Romanticism: European Art and Culture 1750-1850 Invoking the ancient authority and the wisdom of Vitruvius: Charles Robert Cockerell’s classical principles of architecture Dr Peter Kohane 18/19 September 2013 Lecture summary: Lecturing at the Royal Academy in London from 1841 to 1856, C.R. Cockerell defended the Vitruvian analogy between architecture and the human body. His theory will be considered by referring to the human-like disposition of columns, doors, windows, balconies and mouldings. Cockerell also explored the nature of the creative process by invoking the idea of a dream of history. The architect’s designs will be analysed with reference to the main door of the Liverpool and London Insurance Office, the animated details of the Liverpool branch of the Bank of London, and the balconies and windows of the Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian Institute (Oxford, 1839- 40). The lecture also argues that his project for the Royal Exchange was conceived as a perfect body, in which its ideal forms reveal, by contrast, the tragic dimension in everyday life. Slide list: Temple of Aphaia, Aegina, 5th century BC *Temple of Apollo Epicurius, Bassae, 5th century BC *Charles Robert Cockerell, London and Liverpool Insurance Office, Liverpool, 1855 Charles Robert Cockerell, Bank of England, Liverpool, 1845 Robert Adam, Kenwood House, London, 1764-73 Hawksmoor, St. Mary Woolnoth, Bank, London, 1716-24 Charles Robert Cockerell, The Professor’s Dream, 1848, Watercolour, Royal Academy, London *Charles Robert Cockerell, Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian Institute, Oxford, 1839-45 *Charles Robert Cockerell, Unbuilt Project for the Royal Exchange. London, 1840, Lithograph Reference: Peter Kohane, “Order and variety in the work of C. R. Cockerell”, Fabrications, 10, 1999, 100-111 David Watkin, C. R. Cockerell, London, 1974 Proudly sponsored by Images: Temple of Apollo Epicurius, Bassae, 5th century BC Charles Robert Cockerell, London and Liverpool Insurance Office, Liverpool, 1855 Charles Robert Cockerell, Ashmolean Museum and Taylorian Institute, Oxford, 1839-45 Charles Robert Cockerell, Unbuilt Project for the Royal Exchange. London, 1840, Lithograph .

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